Marseille president Christophe Bouchet has denied reports he is looking to bring Chelsea defender Marcel Desailly to the club. The 35-year-old has been linked with his former club after a string of poor performances for the west London side.

Desailly was also left out of the side which beat Portsmouth 3-0 in the Premiership on Sunday, but Bouchet insists the France captain is not bound for his club. "No, Marcel Desailly will not come to Marseille," Bouchet said yesterday. "This is completely false and we will not recruit anyway unless we sell of course."

If a move for Desailly does not seem to be on Bouchet's agenda, keeper Fabien Barthez should join the club on a permanent basis at the start of January. Barthez has fallen out of favour at Manchester United and has been training with Marseille since November after UEFA rejected a request to sign the player outside of the transfer window.

But once the transfer window opens for one month on January 1st, it is expected that the deal will be made official. However, Bouchet admits the club will now do all they can to secure Barthez in time for Saturday's Coupe de France match against Strasbourg. "We are going to try to sign him as soon as possible," Bouchet said.

"If we can it will be on the first or the second at the latest. We have no time to waste because we wish him to be eligible for the Coupe de France match."

Meanwhile, Italian legend Roberto Baggio has confirmed that he will retire from football in 2004 after nearly 16 years in Serie A. The 36-year-old, who is currently in his fourth season with Brescia, cited the numerous injury problems that have dogged him throughout his career as the main reason behind his decision, but admitted that the reality of not playing football will be difficult for him to adapt to.

"The idea of retiring is uppermost in my mind at the moment and I think that that is what will definitely happen," he said yesterday. "My career has been conditioned by injuries down the years, which has meant it has been more and more stop-start as the years have gone on.

Baggio has enjoyed an outstanding career in top-level football, having played in three World Cups, won the European and World Player of the Year awards in 1993 and excelled for all three of Italy's most famous clubs - Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan. But he revealed that he has one more challenge. He has scored 196 goals in Serie A, and he is desperate to reach the 200 mark before the end of the current campaign.